I wouldn’t mind letting them have the first shot, but only if I was able to veto their pick if I didn’t like it. Otherwise I could easily see this boomerang real hard, just like you said.
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In Fallen Hero if you don’t declare a villain name during the attck on the museum, the media will pick one based on how you behave during the attack. Is that what you’re talking about? I always liked the idea although every character I take through that game ends up overruling it in favor of something I like better.
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That particular example worked for me exceptionally well, because the media picked (no kidding) as a villain name what was also the title of my favorite song at the time, which I listened to while reading. What an insane coincidence, but I swear it’s true.
All I remember is hating my nickname there, while someone else got a cool one for their red hair, while my hair was even redder (as it always is). IIRC It was one of those immersion breaking moments for me where NPCs acknowledge someone else having very red hair, but not me. I’m pretty sure that was Keeper of the Sun and Moon.
Keeper of the sun and moon has something similar as well
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I like when games give you the chance to put a nickname in for your character, just because a lot of names have formal and informal variants. Things like Alexandra and Alex, John and Jack, Robert and Rob, etc. I think it adds a nice touch of realism to dialogues to have, say, your boss call you Richard and your buddies call you Rick.
Thalia always gives you one based on your species. I think you can enter a preferred nickname and other characters will use it, but she never does.
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Keeper’s Thalia calls Sera “Red” over her hair, but I don’t think that’s particularly cool?
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It’s cool insofar as it acknowledges the color of the hair, something which I desperately want for myself / my MCs, which always have extremely red hair. It’s just so immersion breaking for others’ red hair to get pointed out, while my own gets overlooked all the time, for obvious reasons. It irks me, because like I said in the other thread, it’s not like it couldn’t be implemented. It’s possible to have NPCs comment on such details.
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it’s being transferred to twine, but Body Count WIP has this – one of the characters will nickname you depending on how good or bad you are at playing pool.
I just remembered that Hayden actually calls you “little human”, especially in Lux. I never play any other race than human, but I suppose that’s another instance of a sort-of nickname (they do it often enough to make it feel like one, albeit with a mocking undertone) tied to your race, but I’d need confirmation from someone who’s played any other race.
Yeah, that’s the kind of thing. Iirc I didn’t get that in FH because I chose my own name earlier, and I only found out later that the media picks one for you otherwise.
But I checked the code, and amazingly, the nickname I would have got was exactly the same as what I chose for myself. 
So I guess that’s an example of it being perfectly done, for me anyway.
@biextroverts Interesting, I’ve been slowly making my way through various WIPs, and coincidentally I just tried that one, but I guess I missed that bit.
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Now I’m curious. Or it’s a secret?
Also, the same coincidence happened to me when I had chosen the name “Alice” for the MC in Keeper’s series.
Astrid(?) told the story about Alice in Wonderland and made some jabs about MC. Well, it was pretty nice.
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Not a secret at all, the media named my MC “The Destroyer”, and this is the song with the same title by TR/ST:
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Uh oh. I named my character Deceiver because of the song as well. 
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Mine was ‘Mastermind’. I was playing a non-combat, chessmaster type of villain, plus I had deliberately made it known that I was a telepath, so it seemed appropriate.
And apparently the ‘known telepath’ element is exactly the same logic the game uses to decide.
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I would definitely like it if more games had NPC’s react to the MC’s looks. Now, I don’t mean only height as has been discussed already. For example, if my MC had bright pink eyes in a setting where that isn’t normal, I’d want NPCs to comment on it, questioning if the MC is a demon if it’s in a historical/fantasy setting, things like that.
I think it’s really neat when NPC’s remember things the MC has done and act accordingly. For example, if I chose to act like a jerk to an NPC early game they should still remember it if my MC meets that person again. Also on a larger scale, I quite like reputation systems. If my MC is for example a renowned thief, the opinions of the general public should be different than if they were, say, a librarian.
There’s also the “remembering” of the MC’s personality. Way too many times I’ve chosen to act in a certain way in choices but when I turn the page and it’s a non-choice-based scene (If that makes sense) where the MC has the “default” personality instead of the personality I’ve been choosing for them. Now, I get this one (and the others to some degree) is mostly because no one wants to write 6 different variations of every single scene, so I’m not too annoyed when it does happen.
I want more NPC’s that aren’t ROs. Most non-ROs are non-recurrnig characters, it’s like it’s an afterthought that it’s a world with other people in it. Let me befriend the local barista, the kind old lady across the street, or neighborhood stray cat. I also think it’s kinda weird when the ROs are around the MC all the time… don’t you have a job? Hobbies?
I think sometimes my MC should be allowed to be more powerful than the other characters, a bit OP if you will. Many games start the story with the MC being powerful and then cripple them in some way, which is all well and good, I don’t mind the good ol’ relying on my favored RO to protect my MC. I just think it’s fun to play a powerful character sometimes.
Let me romance more villains.
Last thing, a lot of games force you to play the hero all the time. Now there’s nothing wrong with that, but let me be at least a little morally dubious sometimes. Yes, I’ll save those orphans, but I’m not gonna be happy about it and I’ll be complaining all the while.
I understand the difficulties with writing and/or programming some of these, this is just wishful thinking.
Apologies for my English, it’s not my first language and I’ve not slept for 2 days. Hope this made at least a little sense, I tried
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you might have to go on the speed date w syd? i’m not sure if you get a custom nickname otherwise since i generally Do pick syd as one of my speed dates
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Oh, hey, Disturbed. I love their Sound of Silence cover.
EDIT: More games need to have “hot cocoa” as the MC drink of choice. Tea is just dirty water and coffee is toxic sludge that me nauseous.
I have actually managed to avoid this somehow, considering the amount of WIPs I play. Can’t recall any I played where, given a choice, water isn’t an option. Good ol’ dihydrogen oxide.
There are plenty that just force me to go through the heinousness of drinking coffee for some reason, though. 
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Tea is dirt water, coffee is addictive dirt water, and hot drinks are evil. Just let me have straight water or something. It’s silly the number of games where you have to choose a side on the battle of dirt water and caffeinated dirt water with no other options.
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Or fruit juice. 
(Incidentally, my WiP does have a scene where you can choose between tea, coffee, hot chocolate, juice, and water, mainly because the tea/coffee false dichotomy does come up far too often.)
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How dare you defile the good name of coffee, retaliation shall soon be swift and overwhelming…Shit, I’m outa coffee
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